Brian Ferguson

Clarke Peters, the American actor best known for his role his The Wire, wants to bring a one-man show about Nat King Cole to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The Broadway and West End star has revealed plans to revive “Unforgettable” - 20 years after he performed in it as an unknown.

The 64-year-old also said he would be prepared to star in his new version of the Louis Jordan-inspired musical “Five Guys Named Moe” at the Fringe after its successful Christmas run in the city, which ends this weekend.

Peters has been in Edinburgh to oversee the revival of his best-known stage production, which he wrote in 1990, in a pop-up venue in Festival Square.

He starred in a previous version of the show when it was staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010 to coincide with its 20th anniversary.

Born in New York in 1952, Peters had his first taste of the stage appearing in a school production of “My Fair Lady” when he was 12 and worked in Paris as a costume designer on the musical “Hair.”

Peters moved to London in 1973 and went on to star in stage shows like Chicago, Guys and Dolls, The Witches of Eastwick, Driving Miss Daisy, Porgy & Bess, and Chess.

He has admitted he is repeatedly drawn back to perform on stage despite regular film and TV appearances since he starred as Detective Lester Freamon in The Wire between 2002 and 2008.

He said: “What I like about the Edinburgh Festival is that it is just about artists.

"Of course it has a commercial aspect to it, but it’s about artists coming together and there is a whole creative kind of dialogue that’s happening with them, That’s really healthy and what we need as a force against the whole corporate, capitalist side of things.

“Edinburgh is one of the premier festivals for the artistic communities around the world. If you can get here, just to be able to put a show on and perform is like a stamp of success, no matter where you’re from.

“To meet other performers from around the world is something you just don’t get the chance to do. The Edinburgh Festival is the place to just sit back and talk to someone, find out what their culture is about, and what their performance is about, The Edinburgh Festival.

“Drama schools are now churning out kids to be in either film or television, but theatre is hard, you’ve got to want to do it. It’s almost like a calling rather than letting your ego be satisfied by what you seen on screen.

“I try to get back to the stage if I have had a long run in front of the camera. It’s where you hone you craft and where you realise why you’re doing what you’re doing. It keeps the strings taught.

"With television or film you are doing things over and over again.

"With the stage you have a beginning, middle and end, and two hours to concentrate your energies and talents on whatever the story is. With television and film you’re pretty much at the mercy of whomever is editing.”